Everyday English (Elementary)

Topic: Dates and Numbers

Lesson Notes December 2, 2025 (Elementary)

Words & Phrases

• The eye doctor dilated my pupils for the eye exam. (= The eye doctor used special eye drops to make my pupils larger.

• In two days in Kyoto I walked fifty thousand steps!

• My friend planned the trip and made a schedule to visit several bistros in Kyoto.

• My friend visited Kyoto last year while her home was renovated.

• How many bottles of wine did you (taste / sample)?

• I took a lot of notes about the bistros, food and wine we tried. (In everyday English, “report” sounds formal or professional, like something you would hand in at work or school.)

• Sprinkle (verb) = to scatter small drops or particles of a substance over a surface

• She sprinkled sugar over the freshly baked cookies.

• The gardener sprinkled water on the plants in the morning.

• He sprinkled a few herbs into the soup for extra flavour.

• My friend and I caught up on our lives since high school. (“Caught up” is a natural way to say you updated each other on your lives after not seeing each other for a while.)

• The area became too busy. There’s no nature, and there are too many condominium towers.

Pronunciation

• Dilated (adjective) ˈdaɪ.lə.teɪtɪd / DI-lat-ed

Appropriate Language

• Renovate (verb) = To repair or improve a building so it’s like new again. Focus is on making old things new or functional. (Used for buildings or physical things)

• We renovated our kitchen last year. The cabinets and floor were old.

• Reform (verb) = To make changes to a system, law, or organization to improve it. Focus is on changing rules, habits (Used for rules, systems, ideas)

• The government wants to reform the education system.

Life in Numbers

Pronunciation

• The focus here is on the use of REPETITION and SHORT QUESTIONS, this helps us to check on what we heard or understood.

• Review the questions and answers in 4A, we will use those as practice.

• For example

• A: How much water do we use to make a pair of jeans?
  B: About 10,000 litres.
  A: (Sorry, / What, / Wait,) how much?
  B: Ten thousand litres.